Case Studies

Client: Universities

Sector: Education

Controversial speakers

There have been numerous high profile cases of attempts to ban controversial speakers from campus, most recently Germaine Greer.

We have been involved in advising various universities, including Cardiff & York, on the legality of many of these. This has included advice on human rights, statutory freedom of speech protections, equality law, public order offences and the relationship with students unions, as well as identity politics and “safe space” policies.

In each case we assisted the University in question on reaching a defensible decision on whether or not to allow the event to proceed and on subsequent complaints relating to that decision.